Rebel and the Kingdom

''Propulsive . . . Deeply reported and novelistic. I flew through it'' Ed Caesar

''Jaw dropping even for North Korea . . . A terrific piece of up-close reportage that reads like a spy thriller but is all too real'' Anna Fifield

HOW DID A COLLEGE KID BECOME A GLOBAL FUGITIVE?

In the early 2000s, Adrian Hong was a soft-spoken Yale undergraduate looking for his place in the world. After reading a harrowing account of life inside North Korea, he realised he had found a cause to which he could devote his life.

Hong journeyed to China, outwitting Chinese security services as he helped ferry asylum-seeking North Korean escapees to safety. Meanwhile, Hong''s secret organization, Cheollima Civil Defense (later renamed Free Joseon), began tracking the North Korean government''s activities, and its volatile ruler, Kim Jong-un.

Free Joseon targeted North Korean diplomats who might be persuaded to defect, while drawing up plans for a government-in-exile. After the shocking broad-daylight assassination in 2017 of Kim Jong-nam, the dictator''s older brother, Hong, along with US Marine veteran Christopher Ahn, helped ferry Jong-nam''s family to safety. Then Hong took the group a step further. He initiated­ a series of ­high-stakes direct actions, culminating in ­an armed­ raid at the North Korean embassy in Madrid - an act that would put Ahn behind bars and turn Hong into one of the world''s most unlikely global fugitives.

The Rebel and the Kingdom is an exhilarating account of how a trip down the safe and well-worn path of activism soon morphed into something extremely dangerous. Acclaimed journalist and bestselling author Bradley Hope - who broke numerous details of Hong''s operations in­ the Wall Street Journal -reveals his remarkable story of idealism and insanity, hubris and heroism, all set within the secret battle for the future of the world''s most mysterious and unsettling nation.